Day: December 8, 2014

Hey everyone!
It’s six years to the day (I think) since I was in Berlin, so wanted to do a quick little blog with some of my pictures from that trip.

It was truly, truly excellent, I must say. Germany seems to really know how to ‘do’ Christmas, which really helped with the atmosphere and such, but even with all that aside, I can’t tell you just how lovely the place was.

The famous Brandenburg Gate.

The Reichstag, just the other side of the Gate.

Remnants of the Berlin wall often jut up along streets. For a large part of its course (perhaps even the entire course, I’m not sure), there is still some form of reminder laid into the pavements, certainly there is around the Brandenburg Gate.

Checkpoint Charlie, another reminder of the Cold War era…

There will be more Christmas lights coming, but seriously – how good are the Germans?!

Berliner Dom, the Cathedral of the city.

The Altes Museum, home of some of the most famous Egyptian art and artifacts (while I was visiting, at any rate):

Even more famous, of course, are the Amarna artifacts:

Unfortunately, I went to Berlin with a new, untested camera – only a point-and-shoot affair, but still, it really wasn’t very good, and a lot of my interior shots were wasted. Sigh. Moving on! Berlin has a whole “museum island”, and right next door to the Altes Museum, we have the Pergamon Museum!

There are some truly megalithic sculptures in this place. It was quite late in the day when we got here, so unfortunately we didn’t explore properly, but there are still a lot of fantastic things that I did see!

The Ishtar Gate! Oh my goodness! I had no clue that was there! I was really happy to have seen this as well!

Berlin by night at Christmas is truly awesome, such as here, as Unter der Linden:

Again, my terrible camera:

We actually went round the Reichstag’s glass dome that night, but my pictures are all terrible. However, I remember it being really quiet (it can be packed during the day)

For day three, we went to Potsdam, to take a look at the famous Sanssouci Palace of Frederick the Great:

Frederick the Great was King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, and is well-known for being both a great military leader along with his lavish patronage of the arts (he was, among other things, a skilled flautist). Sanssouci was built in the 1740s as a retreat from Berlin, the name meaning “without a care”.

Of course, you don’t have to go to Potsdam for rococo magnificence…

Schloβ Charlottenburg, built by Frederick’s grandmother Sophie Charlotte of Hanover (not, I assume, single-handedly). There is a pretty awesome Christmas market in the vicinity of the palace, too…

And here’s a chocolate Reichstag…just because…

Remember I said Berlin knows how to ‘do’ Christmas…?

So there you have it, my friends! I absolutely adore Berlin, and can’t believe it’s been six years since I was there. With a bit of luck, I’m hoping I can go back next year…